The situation of game bird’s captivity breeding in Spain has been tackled in this paper. We examine the historical evolution of the captivity breeding since its beginning until today, with a description of the proposed production systems at different stages, listing the most notable achievements and problems and offering data on the number of farms and animals produced. The sector has evolved toward obtaining a large number of animals for hunting directly through intensive farming, distributed in the whole country. However, these rearing methods have generated a large number of behavioural defects that hamper survival in the natural environment of most individuals released and threatening wild populations. The development of new alternative systems of semi-intensive and extensive farming is needed, in agreement with the new guidelines for sustainability, animal welfare and promotion of biodiversity, in order to obtain differentiated products of high quality and value, in our case game birds capable of integrating and reproduce in the wild.